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A Detailed Look at Apple and Google's Fight for Mobile Developer Attention

Appcelerator and IDC just published a new survey of smartphone developers focusing on long-term platform perceptions, as well as what features are most important when developing a new app.

The results, like those from a similar study performed by Appcelerator in June, indicate that Google's Android platform continues to be where developers see the most long-term potential, especially when powering multiple types of devices (read: beyond smartphone/tablet).

In fact, the gap between iOS and Android over "best long-term outlook" has widened an additional 10 points since June. The latest survey results indicate that 58.6% of respondents see Android as having better long-term outlook as compared to 34.9% for iOS.

I spoke with Scott Schwarzhoff, VP of Marketing at Appcelerator about the results of the survey and some of his thoughts on why trends are shaping up as they are.

Android: BusyBox for the 21st Century?

The latest survey results indicate that both the iPhone and iPad still lead Android and Android tablets in terms of developer interest — at least today. That gap continues to shrink and when looking at non-smartphone or tablet use-cases, the capabilities and potential for Android really start to take shape.

Appcelerator and IDC asked developers a series of questions about how they perceived Android and iOS in terms of capabilities, openness, long-term outlook and ability to power a variety of connected devices in the future.

You can see the results in the chart below:

While Android leads iOS in all four questions, the two where Android has an overwhelming lead over the competition are variety of devices and openness. These two areas both speak to Android's potential as an underlying framework (and one that isn't necessarily tied into Google or the Android Market) as much as its capabilities.

We've already seen a barrage of Android-powered or Android-based devices of all shapes and sizes hit the market. Beyond tablets and portable music players — and keep in mind, Google hasn't released a tablet-optimized version of its OS yet — we've seen Android-powered ebook readers, Android TVs, Android picture frames and more. Google's upcoming Google TV will be based on Android.

At its base, Android is a customizable low-level operating system that is perfect for embedded devices. In this case, it's similar to the GPL-licensed BusyBox. BusyBox is a very lightweight and portable set of Unix tools and utilities that can be used with the Linux kernel. On electronic devices that run an embedded version of the Linux kernel (read, hundreds of thousands of electronics), BusyBox provides an ultra-lightweight set of tools that can be used for diagnostics and for adding additional features.

In many ways, Android is becoming the BusyBox of the 21st century. Sure, the base hardware specifications are going to be higher, but as chip prices fall and capabilities rise — not to mention the convergence of connected devices — it makes sense to have a base platform that has built-in support for networking, userland tools and also can be hooked into a higher-level application ecosystem.

In theory, iOS could be used for these same purposes. The difference is that Android is licensed under the Apache license (Google's own applications and the Android Market are under different licenses, which is why you don't see the Android Market on devices without a cellular data connection), whereas Apple's iOS is proprietary and not licensed to outside device makers.

iOS Still Has the Better App Experience

In the long-term, the outlook on Android may be in the lead, but according to the developers studied, iOS still offers better revenue opportunity, a better app store and the biggest market for business and consumer apps.

The Android Market is tied to Google Checkout and paid apps are still not available in all countries. This limits the revenue opportunities for developers. Additionally, the app discovery system pales in comparison to iOS.

Mobile App Development: What Features Do Developers Want/Need

Beyond what platform developers are interested in developing for, Appcelerator and IDC also asked respondents for feedback on what features and APIs and types of integration are essential when building apps.

Interestingly, four of the five developers surveyed favored developing a native app over a web app — most of these developers come from a web development background.

Still, when it comes to native applications, developers want their apps to be location aware and to be able to offer push-updates. Schwarzhoff described these two indicators as an area where mobile development is unique from other types of development. Context becomes increasingly important for mobile development as apps can display or push out different information based on what time it is or where a user is located.

Schwarzhoff also noted that when it comes to the phone camera, developers increasingly want to utilize the camera as a way to capture additional information, instead of the traditional, "take photos and upload to Flickr" sense (though that is helpful too).

That's why QR codes and barcode apps have seen a lot of traction. The camera can be used to bring back in lots of information that can then be used to inform the app of what to do next.

Likewise, it's important that apps have hooks to social features like Facebook and Twitter.

In the area of commerce, 49% of developers responded that they needed access to the iOS-in-App purchase system. That has really been a great way for developers to offer upgrades and enhancements to their apps.

Likewise, PayPal Payments are requested by 48% of developers. PayPal has been dedicating a lot of energy into improving the mobile payment process. Earlier this year, it rolled out its PayPal iPhone SDK as a way for developers to accept PayPal payments in app. We've spoken to PayPal several times and they see mobile and mobile payments as a real focus going forward.

Going Forward

On the macro level, Android continues to entice developers with its possibilities and future use cases. iOS still really leads when it comes to the overall app development experience, and especially with any revenue plans.

Looking at the features that developers want to be able to integrate into their apps, it's important to note how many are platform agnostic. This actually shows that there is potential for another company — Microsoft, RIM, HP — to capture developer interest depending upon how easy they make it to hook into the types of services and types of features that developers want to bring to their apps.

What do you think of the survey results? Are you surprised with any of the findings? If you develop mobile applications, what features are most important to you?

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